About this calculator

Isn't it annoying when you find a recipe in US cups, and you only have scales or vice versa?

Well, I now have the solution... my Interactive Grams to Cups / Cups to Grams Calculator.

I've called it "grams to cups / cups to grams" as they're the conversions I get asked for most often, but actually, it can convert between grams, cups, ounces or millilitres for many common baking ingredients. So you can go from grams to cups, or cups to grams, from cups to millilitres or grams to ounces to your heart's content.

Simply select your ingredient, what you'd like to convert from and to and enter the amount, and it'll tell you exactly what you need.

I'll be adding new ingredients all the time. If there's one missing that you'd love to see here then do let me know in the comments.

How to fill a cup for baking

I asked my followers on social media about how they fill cups. The majority scoop ingredients such as flour or sugar out of the bag and then level the top, so that's the approach I've taken when measuring similar ingredients for my calculator. I also like to give the bag a little squeeze beforehand to break up any lumps.

Many conversion charts give 1 cup of flour as 120g. However, I've found the only way I can get it that low is to sift the flour and then use a spoon to fill the cup with the sifted flour. I don't know about you, but I prefer to sift flour after it's been measured, not before. So in my conversions, you'll find a cup of flour weighs more as it reflects how I fill a cup.

For ingredients in smaller packets, I pour them into the cup straight from the bag and level the top.

For soft ingredients such as butter or cream cheese, I push them into the cup with the back of a spoon to ensure any gaps are filled and then level the top.

Are you best using scales or cups for baking?

In baking accuracy is important, so for my baking recipes I recommend always using grams if you can.

There are several reasons I'd recommend using weighed ingredients rather than cups:

The conversion varies depending on how you fill your cup

When I was working out all of the conversions for this calculator, I found that how I filled a cup could significantly impact the amount of an ingredient I could fit in.

In the image below both cups appear to be full of flour. However, the one on the right weighs over 40% more than the one on the left, as I packed the flour in as tightly as possible.

A cup isn't always a cup

The official size of a US cup is 236.588ml, but most cups available to buy in the shops assume it to be 240ml for simplicity (this is what I've assumed in my calculator). However, there are some cup manufacturers sell cups that are 250ml (but keep a ½ cup at 120ml!).

This isn't a huge problem as long as you know which you own. A bigger problem is that not all cups sold are hugely accurate.

I own two sets of measuring cups, and neither holds the amount they're supposed to. In one set my ¼ cup holds 65ml (it should be 60ml), yet the full cup only holds 225ml when it should be 240ml (don't worry I've adjusted everything here to ensure it's accurate for a correctly-sized cup).

Some ingredients can be tricky to get into the cup

If you've got a recipe such as scones or shortcrust pastry that need cold butter straight from the fridge, how do you get it into the cup to measure it?

Not everything fits nicely in a cup

Imagine measuring walnuts. If you put them into a cup whole, you're going to fit in a lot less than if you finely chop them before adding them to the cup.

You got the ingredient into the cup, but how do you get it back out again?

There are also some ingredients such as Nutella or Black Treacle that are tricky to remove from the cup after filling. It's unlikely that you'll get everything out that you put in so you may well end up adding less to your mixture than the recipe calls for.

Do you really want to be washing up mid-baking?

Many sets of scales have a tare button which allows you to rest the scales to 0 so you can keep measuring more ingredients into one bowl. The is great as it means you can pour in everything you need for your mixture without getting lots of extra measuring utensils dirty.

Imagine you've got a recipe that calls for a cup of butter, flour, maple syrup and Nutella (not too sure what you'd be making!). To get an accurate measurement, you'll need to either own lots of cups or wash the cup up between each ingredient before you can measure the next one.

What is a scant cup?

A scant cup is just under a cup. As measurements go it's a bit vague! Similarly, the amount you can fit into a heaped cup can vary significantly depending on the shape of the cup. I therefore don't use either of these descriptions in my recipes (it's a flat cup, tablespoon or teaspoon for me).

How are the measurements in the calculator rounded?

To keep the conversions to amounts that can be easily measured in the kitchen I've rounded...

Grams to the nearest gram

Millilitres to the nearest millilitre

Ounces to the nearest ¼ ounce

Cups to the nearest

¼ teaspoon (for under 1 teaspoon)

Teaspoon for under ¼ cup

Tablespoon for over ¼ cup

Conversion tables

In addition to the main calculator, I thought it would be helpful to provide conversion tables for a selection of the most popular ingredients.

Water

WATER - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

3 tbsp + 1 tsp

100g

¼ cup + 3 tbsp

200g

¾ cup + 1 tbsp

250g

1 cup + 1 tbsp

300g

1¼ cups

400g

1½ cups + 3 tbsp

500g

2 cups + 1 tbsp

WATER - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

5g

1 tbsp

15g

¼ cup

60g

⅓ cup

80g

½ cup

120g

1 cup

240g

Sugar

Caster sugar

CASTER SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup

100g

½ cup

200g

1 cup

250g

1¼ cups

300g

1½ cups

400g

2 cups

500g

2½ cups

CASTER SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

4g

1 tbsp

13g

¼ cup

51g

⅓ cup

67g

½ cup

101g

1 cup

202g

Granulated Sugar

GRANUALTED SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

3 tbsp + 2 tsp

100g

¼ + 3 tbsp

200g

¾ cup + 3 tbsp

250g

1 cup + 3 tbsp

300g

1½ cups + 2 tbsp

400g

1¾ cups + 2 tbsp

500g

2¼ cups + 1 tbsp

GRANULATED SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

4g

1 tbsp

13g

¼ cup

54g

⅓ cup

72g

½ cup

108g

1 cup

215g

Icing / powdered / confectioners sugar

ICING / POWDERED/ CONFECTIONERS SUGAR - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup + 1 tbsp

100g

½ cup + 3 tbsp

200g

1¼ cups + 2 tbsp

250g

1½ cups + 3 tbsp

300g

2 cups + 1 tbsp

400g

2¾ cups

500g

3¼ cups + 3 tbsp

ICING / POWDERED / CONFECTIONERS SUGAR - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

3g

1 tbsp

9g

¼ cup

37g

⅓ cup

49g

½ cup

73g

1 cup

146g

Brown sugar (packed)

BROWN SUGAR (PACKED) - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup

100g

½ cup

200g

1 cup

250g

1¼ cups

300g

1½ cups

400g

2 cups

500g

2¼ cups + 3 tbsp

BROWN SUGAR (PACKED) - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

4g

1 tbsp

13g

¼ cup

51g

⅓ cup

68g

½ cup

102g

1 cup

203g

Flour

White flour - plain, all-purpose, self-raising, spelt

WHITE FLOUR - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup + 1 tbsp

100g

½ cup + 2 tbsp

200g

1¼ cups

250g

1½ cups + 1 tbsp

300g

1¾ cups + 2 tbsp

400g

2½ cups

500g

3 cups + 2 tbsp

WHITE FLOUR - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

3g

1 tbsp

10g

¼ cup

40g

⅓ cup

54g

½ cup

81g

1 cup

161g

Wholemeal / brown flour

BROWN FLOUR - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup + 1 tbsp

100g

½ cup + 2 tbsp

200g

1¼ cup + 1 tbsp

250g

1½ cup + 2 tbsp

300g

1¾ cups + 3 tbsp

400g

2½ cups + 1 tbsp

500g

3¼ cups

BROWN FLOUR - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

3g

1 tbsp

10g

¼ cup

39g

⅓ cup

52g

½ cup

78g

1 cup

155g

Cornflour (UK) / cornstarch (US)

CORNFLOUR / CORNSTARCH - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

¼ cup + 3 tbsp

100g

¾ cup + 1 tbsp

200g

1½ cups + 2 tbsp

250g

2 cups + 1 tbsp

300g

2¼ cups + 3 tbsp

400g

3¼ cups

500g

4 cups + 2 tbsp

CORNFLOUR / CORNSTARCH - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

3g

1 tbsp

8g

¼ cup

31g

⅓ cup

41g

½ cup

61g

1 cup

122g

Fats and oils

Butter / margarine

BUTTER / MARGARINE - GRAMS TO CUPS

Grams

Cups

50g

3 tbsp + 2 tsp

100g

¼ cup + 3 tbsp

200g

¾ cup + 2 tbsp

250g

1 cup + 2 tbsp

300g

1¼ cups + 2 tbsp

400g

1¾ cups + 1 tbsp

500g

2¼ cups

BUTTER / MARGARINE - CUPS TO GRAMS

Cups

Grams

1 tsp

5g

1 tbsp

14g

¼ cup

56g

⅓ cup

74g

½ cup

111g

1 cup

222g

How much does a stick of butter weigh?

I've seen many recipes from the US calling for a stick of butter, but just how much butter do you actually get in a stick?

What a brilliant tool. Thank you for going to the effort to create it. I have avoided American recipes for years due the measurements baffling me. Now I’m excited to try them. Might I add a conversion request for rolled oats please?

This is a wonderful tool. Easy to use and follow. Thank you! When possible can you add sour cream and cream fraiche? I used the heavy cream to convert cream ftaiche so hope it works. Thanks again for sharing this.

This is Awesome!! Since I have converted to using weights instead of measures I have been looking for something like this! Thank you! I have a question. I use lots of recipes that originate from British bakers. They call for caster sugar but I have always assumed that caster and granulated was the same. What is the difference?

Caster sugar is finer so gives a lighter bake. Most recipes that call for caster should work with granulated, but you’ll get a sought better result with caster. If you have a food processor you can make your own caster by blitzing up granulated to make it a little finer.

Vickysays

January 25, 2020 at 1:24 pm

This is the best conversion calculator I’ve come across. I had to search for the conversion of a stick of butter – wish I had seen this before. As I use many American recipes ( and yours , of course) this will be invaluable. Thanks.